Is planting and flooding a crop field baiting or not baiting? Due to all of the confusion surrounding this topic, I asked the USFW Service in Virginia for clarification. Below is the email that I received from them and is consistent with what I have observed in many states. To my knowledge, since this is a federally regulated species, "states" can not deviate from this. You may want to print this out and carry with you or have in your vehicle just in case you need some information. Disclaimer...I am not your attorney nor your legal consultant. This is simply information that I received from the USFW Service. You may contact them directly as well. You may also want to review this with your local CO prior to hunting flooded fields just so you are all on the same page. If your CO disagrees with the information below, then I would encourage you to request that they contact the USFW Service in Virginia as well so everyone is on the same page. ----- Original Message ----- From: R9LE_WWW@fws.gov To: HabitatNOW.com Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 2:09 PM Subject: Re: Baiting waterfowl
Dear Kyle,
Thank you for your follow-up inquiry.
Our regulations state that you can hunt over standing crops that have been flooded, but they do not stipulate how that flooding occurred so, you can hunt over standing crops that have been flooded either manually or naturally.
Thank you for your cooperation in complying with our regulations that help protect fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats. Please feel free to respond to this message with any further inquiries that you may have regarding this matter.
_____________________________
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Office of Law Enforcement
4401 N. Fairfax Drive (Mailstop: LE-3000)
Arlington, Virginia 22203
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